


All Pain; No Gain

by RedTeamShark



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: "stay with me", 100 word drabbles, Adrenaline, Asphyxiation, Bleeding Out, Delirium, Don't Move, Dragged away, Embrace, Explosion, Gen, Human shield, Humiliation, Isolation, Muffled scream, Other, Ransom, Recovery, Scars, Secret Injury, Stab Wound, Stitches, Tear-stained, Trembling, Unconscious, Whumptober, Whumptober 2019, abandoned, beaten, endgame spoilers, gunpoint, hallucination, laced drink, numb, pinned down, shackled, shaking hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2020-11-22 05:41:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 31
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20869106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTeamShark/pseuds/RedTeamShark
Summary: Whumptober drabble fills for October 2019. Self-imposed limitation of 100 words per prompt. See chapter titles for theme and main character(s).





	1. Shaking Hands - Clint Barton

**Author's Note:**

> Because I don't have enough pots on the stove, so to speak, I decided to add whumptober to my to do list. On the up side, I'm doing my best to make all of these exactly-100-word drabbles.
> 
> If you're here from [my other ongoing MCU project](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20331985), fear not. That will continue regular Friday updates throughout the month.

It isn’t that bad. It isn’t that bad. It isn’t that bad. He takes a slow breath to steady himself, grits his teeth together, and lifts the bow again. It isn’t that bad. 

His broken fingers scream agony into his brain and he shoves it away, _ deal with it later, Barton_, and waits for the word. One early twitch and he ruins months and months of work. He’ll be fine.

Now if only his hands would stop shaking long enough for him to believe that.

“_Now_.”

He goes unnaturally still, pain on the back burner, and takes out the target.


	2. Explosion - Tony Stark

It happens fast, but he’s aware of every little detail.

The air pressure changes. Heat and force knock him to the ground. Then the sound, so loud, so all-encompassing that he can’t even comprehend it. The rain of debris over him, rock and metal clattering to the ground around him. On top of him.

The sensation of agony that crawls into his body and makes itself at home.

His ears are ringing, his nose is bleeding, his eyes won’t open. Every inch of him is screaming pain that makes movement impossible.

A sound over the ringing in his ears: “Tony!”


	3. Delirium - Bruce Banner

Like coming up from deep water, that first gasp of air in too long.

Like waking in the midst of a nightmare, paralyzed in the dark.

He doesn’t know _ where_, _ how_, or _ when_. He doesn’t know if it’s safe. If something happened to the Other Guy and now he’s in the midst of a problem, weak and vulnerable. _ Can _ something happen to the Other Guy?

He shivers, his whole body twisting against his self-control, his eyelids fluttering, offering him rapid flashes of his surroundings.

And then he drops back and lets it take him. His mind is clearer is chaos.


	4. Human Shield - Steve Rogers

“Steve!”

“Go!” Pain sears into him and he braces against it, teeth clenched, jaw working. Get everyone out. He can take it. He risks letting go with one hand, waving frantically. “_Go!_”

He has to do this. He has to be the one to do this. He has to--to--

He opens his eyes in a hospital bed, darts a glance left and right. Steve exhales in a sigh, dropping back into the pillow. “Is everyone okay?”

Next to him, Bucky’s eyes open, flicking over him. He must look like hell, because Bucky’s worried frown doesn’t go away. “Yeah.”

“Good.”


	5. Gunpoint - Natasha Romanoff

This isn’t the first time she’s been staring down the barrel of a gun.

She moves carefully, telegraphs her intent: drop her weapons, raise her hands in surrender, keep eye contact. If she doesn’t show any fear, they won’t know what’s coming next. “Don’t suppose you’d believe this is a misunderstanding?”

The man with the gun snorts, jerking his head towards the door. “Walk in front of me.”

She steps around him, leaves behind her weapons, moves to the doorway on light feet. Narrow hallway, dead ends with a window to the left, opens to the right.

She turns left.


	6. Dragged Away - Thor

He fights it. That’s the worst part. He fights with all the might he has, all the might he can summon, and it’s still. Not. Enough.

The middle of a battle, when his senses need to be sharpest, he’s suddenly--

Gone.

Thor stumbles through the party, dull, weak, lost. It’s Asgard, Asgard as he dreams of it, in celebration of victory, of power. It’s the kingdom he should rule, the one he should care about. Not Midgard--Earth--and her petty problems.

His mind says these things in the soft voice of a woman and he accepts them as true.


	7. Isolation - Peter Parker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't actually seen Far From Home yet whoops.
> 
> Is it still practical to warn for Endgame spoilers? I don't know, but you've been warned anyways.

No one talks about it, so neither does he.

He spends a lot of time thinking about it, though. Those last moments, frantically holding on, feeling what was coming. The despair. The fear. Others had been too surprised, or had just accepted it. He’d fought, he’d clung on, and he’d still lost.

Maybe Strange would talk about it with him, but he can’t bring himself to visit. Too many reminders of old failures.

So he talks to Mr. Stark.

“I just remember… being alone. In nothing. Scared. Hoping that… that you’d save me.

“That’s not where you are now, right?”


	8. Stab Wound - T'Challa & N'Jadaka

Self-defense, it’s self-defense, it’s him or his cousin, not just for the throne, not just for the title of Black Panther, not just for Wakanda--for life itself.

It doesn’t make it easier on his mind when the blade goes in.

There’s blood on his hands, on the suit that Shuri designed, so much blood still oozing from the wound. It didn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to end like this, they can… can…

No. They can’t.

The least he can do is give his cousin what he requests. Show him the Wakanda of his father’s stories.


	9. Shackled - Loki

The metal scraping his wrists isn’t what hurts.

The stagnant air isn’t what makes breathing difficult.

Even the looming punishment doesn’t cause sick to rise in his throat.

None of those things bother him, but when Thor approaches, when Thor says “brother, I need you,” and he knows he’s going to say yes, Loki feels the true weight of his imprisonment.

He’s chained not by metal or magic, but by the bond of family. A family that has never let him forget he belongs. A family that has never stopped caring, no matter how much he tries to make them.


	10. Unconscious - James "Rhodey" Rhodes

Spinning, no control, sky ground sky ground-sky-groundsky_goundsky_**_groundsky_**\--

Everything goes black as the forces pulling his body inside the dead metal of the suit overwhelm his brain. It comes back in a flash of blue blue sky and a shout _ deploy chute _ but that’s not right is it?

The ground rushes up to greet him and if there’s a chute to deploy it’s too late, if there’s anything he can do he isn’t focused enough to do it.

Rhodey hits the ground and feels something compress, twist, snap, and then go chillingly numb before the blackness overtakes him again.


	11. Stitches - Doctor Strange

“Come on, asshole, you’ve done this a hundred times before,” he grits out, grasping his right wrist with his left hand to stop the shaking. “It’s just a leg. It’s not _ your leg_. Do it.”

The needle pushes in and he hisses in a breath between clenched teeth, pulling the thread to follow. One.

Two through thirteen go surprisingly quickly, but on fourteen he hits a nerve. Strange can’t keep in his yell of pain, almost drops the needle and thread (_not even surgical grade_, his mind reminds him). He grips down tighter and pushes through.

Fourteen.

Almost halfway done.


	12. "Don't Move" - Pietro Maximoff

He doesn’t even dare to blink.

In any other moment it wouldn’t matter, it wouldn’t stop him, but he can’t put her life on the line. Adrenaline pulses through every muscle, making him want to twitch, to act, to move and he _ can’t_.

“Don’t. Move,” the man holding a gun to Wanda’s head repeats, steely eyes on him. “It’s not difficult, is it?”

It’s difficult, it’s _ impossible_, they built him to move, they changed his DNA so that all he can do is move and--

He feels Wanda safe in his arms well before he feels the bullet hit him.


	13. Adrenaline - Sam Wilson

Staccato heartbeat in his ears, every image sharpened to surreal quality, time seeming to slow down.

He has the extra moments to watch, helpless, as Riley falls. It’s too late, there’s nothing left, and he’s still up there, he’s still--

Something grabs his wing and _ rips_, tears carbon fiber from the metal housing strapped to his back, the shriek of metal on metal. The Winter Soldier, he has time to realize, before he’s spiraling, falling, the clarity of adrenaline no help in leaden freefall.

All it does is numb the pain when he remembers too late to pull his chute.


	14. Tear-Stained - Peter Quill

His eyes sting and burn, his vision going blurry, but he stops himself.

He doesn’t cry. Crying is for children, for the helpless, for the lost. He can’t be any of those things.

He has to be strong, he has to be the leader. There’s no time for tears from a leader.

Even when he’s alone, he holds it in, swallows it, pushes down the outlet of emotion. No, now it’s too late, now his feelings don’t matter.

So he screams instead, fights, works up a sweat. The staining moisture on his face is sweat, not tears, and that’s okay.


	15. Scars - Bucky Barnes

“So where’d this one come from?” Bucky turns his calf towards Steve, one finger tracing a thin line of scar tissue along the back of his bared ankle. 

Steve leans in, his fingers hesitating before Bucky nods. He traces over the pale, thin scar, frowning. “We got caught sneaking into Mrs. Fazio’s garden and you tripped climbing over the fence and cut yourself up good.”

The lie reads in Steve’s eyes, even if his words are steady, and Bucky nods. He doesn’t say that it looks too clean to be anything but a knife that sliced through his Achilles tendon. 


	16. Pinned Down - Brock Rumlow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (sings Livin' On A Prayer)
> 
> Also hey look our first villain chapter because I have a Brand to maintain.

The worst is the screams around him. He’s done his own share of yelling, judging by how raw his throat is, but the screams around him that start to taper off…

Rumlow doesn’t think about those.

The numb shock of the collapse still holds on most of his body, broken bones and lacerations secondary to the crushing _ weight _ of being under tons of Triskelion and Helicarrier. The creeping heat of fire drawing closer every time he notices it again is almost a relief in comparison.

He won’t die. He can’t.

He owes Rogers too much of a beating to die.


	17. "Stay With Me" - Scott Lang & Hope Van Dyne

What size is he?

“Scott? Scott!”

That voice is so loud for one second, before fading out, quieter.

Is he still big? Is he minuscule again?

“Scott, stay with me.”

There’s cool air on his face, the mask is off, a hand on his sweaty forehead. He blinks and, oh, there’s Hope, leaning over him.

Scott tries to sit up, the world swimming around him. “Oh… I think I need some orange slices.”

Her smile doesn’t chase the worry out of her eyes, her fingers brushing his hair back gently. “We’ll get you some. You just rest for now, okay?”


	18. Muffled Scream - Clint Barton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The MCU might have a billion characters but my need to destroy my faves is more powerful than Disney could ever dream of being.

It worked. The farm’s in front of him, his family is inside. Clint swallows down the urge to yell for them, the need to see them. Seven years, all the way back to 2016. After Ultron. Before The Raft.

He makes it two steps inside, hears a noise upstairs, sees the baseball glove on the ground. Emotion chokes him, his voice slipping out unbidden. “Lila… Lila!”

Holding that glove to his chest, too aware of what day it is. No. Not today, any day but--

He’s back to the others, with his daughter’s muffled scream still echoing in his ears.


	19. Asphyxiation - Tony Stark

Blackness.

Not empty, not by a long shot. What’s up there, what’s _ coming for them _ is far from empty.

There’s no air.

His lungs cramp, seize up, his body shuddering with the effort to draw in air that isn’t there. Distantly, under the blood rushing in his ears, he can hear someone calling him, giving instructions, but none of it makes it past the frantic, desperate clawing for air.

A jolting electricity shoots through him and he hears the voice more clearly, counting slowly.

“_...three… four… five… six… Exhale… two… three… four… five… six…_”

Breath finally fills Tony’s lungs again.


	20. Trembling - Steve Rogers

No one sees him in the aftermath. The world and everyone in it sees Steve Rogers as Captain America, firm, bold, ready to lie down the ultimate sacrifice. The guy that will jump on the grenade.

There’s no one there when it’s all said and done, no one who watches as his fingers tremble, his knees weak, unable to support him. The fine tremors that turn his muscles into quivering jelly as he replays every close call, every near loss. 

No one sees the way he flinches as the bombs from the front echo across the years and his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This thing was over by 19 words when I first drafted it but fuck I love those last 19 words too much to keep them away from y'all so.
> 
> Tack this onto the end of the last sentence to up the angst: "...and remind him that no matter how many people he saves, he still lost them all in the war."


	21. Laced Drink - Natasha Romanoff

She’s dizzy. The room fuzzes at the edges, tilts, rights itself, then spills headlong in the other direction. Her steps stagger and she tells herself that she has to get out, that her mission is compromised, that--

A stranger catches her arm, a firm hand settling on her waist, guiding her. The breath on her cheek is too warm, the voice in her ear is too quiet under the music. In a blink she’s no longer in the crowd of a dimly lit club, but alone in a daylight bright hotel room.

From then on, she mixes her own drinks.


	22. Hallucination - Thor

Reality shifts and moves, fluid, firming up for a moment before gliding away. He reaches forward, skims his fingers through images like smoke, disperses them and watches them reform as something else.

“You try to fool my mind,” he whispers, the words fading almost as soon as they leave his lips. He draws a deeper breath, puts more force behind his voice. “It will not work, witch!”

Thor rounds on where his attacker must be, swings with the swiftness and ferocity of a lightning strike, and hits--

Nothing.

A safe distance away, Loki laughs. All brawn, no brain, his brother.


	23. Bleeding Out - Hulk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Major Character Death warning, though it's not graphic.

Banner is silent. Banner is never silent, never _ gone_, even in rage, Banner is there. Sometimes screaming, sometimes whispering, but _ there_.

For the first time, Hulk fights alone.

The rampage goes on, with no relief, with no Banner to slow him down. Destroy, crush, _ smash_. Brush off the puny attempts to injure his body. He’s unstoppable. Unbreakable.

Eventually the others catch up with him, someone puts a hand on his and he can’t shove it away.

The world is dark, darker than seeing through Banner’s eyes.

“It’s okay, buddy.”

Everything’s wet, slimy, slippery. Cold, so cold.

“You can rest now.”


	24. Secret Injury - Bucky Barnes

_ Malfunction: fractured ribs. Diagnosis: will not interfere with function. _

Bucky grits his teeth, forcing himself to stay neutral. He’s fine, he’s still _ functional_, there’s no reason to bother anyone with his pain. He unwraps his right arm from holding his ribs, picking up the pace to a jog as he spots the others.

_ Malfunction: inability to inhale. Diagnosis: requiring maintenance. _

No, abso-fucking-lutely not, he’s _ not _ telling them that he needs maintenance. He’s not that anymore, he’s not, he--

“Hey.” Sam’s voice, Sam’s warm hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

He doesn’t wheeze when he speaks, that’s good. “Yeah, I’m fine.”


	25. Humiliation - Drax

His life has come to this one moment.

And he fails.

Defeat is not something he’s familiar with. Loss, yes, but true defeat…

His wife. His daughter. Their murderer, right in front of him, laid out like a gift for him to enact his revenge on, and Drax couldn’t even harm him.

“I was weak. I was an infant with taken candy.” He stares past the others, his fists clenching so his hands won’t shake. “He defeated me as easily as I would defeat any of you.”

Looks exchanged over his head, before someone touches his shoulder. “I am Groot.”


	26. Abandoned - Scott Lang

“_Preparing for re-entry in five… four… three…_” Static.

“Hello?” Scott frowned for a moment, before shaking his head. “Haha, very funny.”

He wasn’t panicking. No, absolutely not, he was totally calm, this was just the rest of them messing with him. It was probably Janet’s idea, she seemed like the practical jokester type.

Scott swallowed down his panic, closing his eyes tight. When he opened them, he’d be back to normal size and the others would be there, laughing at their little prank. Yeah, that was what would happen. He wasn’t alone. Lost. Subatomic. Stuck.

They wouldn’t leave him here.


	27. Ransom - Tony Stark & Peter Parker

“Kinda busy, kid--”

“Tony Stark. I should have guessed.”

That voice isn’t Peter. Tony sits up a little straighter, glancing at FRIDAY’s monitor. Already running a trace, good.

“Who is this?”

“Ten million dollars, or the little spider dies--”

Tony barks a laugh. “Ten million? You’re going through all this trouble for so little?”

There’s quiet on the line, long silence that tells him that he’s made an irrevocable mistake. “Fine,” the voice says. There’s a yelp, definitely Peter, definitely pain, and the call disconnects.

“_They had a scrambler over the trace, boss, I didn’t have time to crack it._”


	28. Beaten - Nebula & Gamora

Get up.  _ Get up! _

“Is that all you can do?”

That voice drags Nebula to her feet where her own can’t. Her right arm hangs useless, broken by her side, so she wipes her left across her mouth. “I can keep fighting.”

Gamora snorts, wiping her blade on the sleeve of her jacket. “You can barely stand up.”

“I can fight!” She charges, her fist swinging wide, her sister stepping out of the way easily. “I’m not done yet! I can still fight!”

“Give it up, Nebula, you’ll never beat me. I’m going to get dinner, go see the medics.”


	29. Numb - Wanda Maximoff

“You could never hurt me.”

The cold comfort of those words lasts for all of a minute. Everything she’s done, every sacrifice they’ve made, and it’s all for nothing.

The emptiness swims inside her, not as all-consuming as the day she lost her parents, not as sharp as the day she lost her brother. It turns her limbs to sand, fills her innards with rocks, and leaves no room for emotional outcry.

Shortly after, the only thing that breaks through the numb barrier is relief. She’s gone, too. It’s about time she join the rest of them. She welcomes it.


	30. Recovery - Brock Rumlow

“Oh, _ Christ_\--”

He groans at the voice, head tilting to try turning away from it. There’s something… something…

“Hey, wait--shit, get a medic over here, this guy’s alive!”

Rumlow drifts away for a while as they pull him out of the rubble.

He comes back to beeping machines and a tube down his throat, _ hospital_, everything hurts. When he tries to move his arm it’s stiff bandages and the jangle of a handcuff keeping him on the bed.

He sinks back into the pillow, wondering how long until they start withholding medication to get him to talk.

_ Fucking superheroes. _


	31. Embrace - Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton

One of them has to do it.

He can't go back; she can't go forward.

"Whatever it takes," Natasha whispers, her forehead pressed against Clint's, her eyes on his.

He breathes in and darts his eyes to the edge.

Her arms snake up to wrap around his shoulders, holding him there, holding him with her. His hands settle at her waist, his fingers curling around her gently.

“Tell my family I love them.”

“Tell them yourself.”

For an indeterminable moment--maybe forever--they hold each other on the edge of _ whatever it takes_, wait for the other to break away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's DONE, 31 drabbles for whumptober.
> 
> I'm gonna go curl up in a blanket with some tea now and think about fluffuary or something.


End file.
